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Reading I 1 Sm 1:24-28

In those days,
Hannah brought Samuel with her,
along with a three-year-old bull,
an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,
and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh. 
After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull,
Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:
“Pardon, my lord!
As you live, my lord,
I am the woman who stood near you here,

 » Read more about: Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent  »

Reading 1 SG 2:8-14

Hark! my lover–here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one,
and come!
“For see, the winter is past,

Reading I Is 7:10-14

The LORD spoke to Ahaz:
Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God;
    let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
    “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” 
Then Isaiah said:
    Listen, O house of David! 
Is it not enough for you to weary men,
    must you also weary my God? 

Reading 1 JGS 13:2-7, 24-25A

There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites,
whose name was Manoah. 
His wife was barren and had borne no children. 
An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her,
“Though you are barren and have had no children,
yet you will conceive and bear a son. 
Now, then, be careful to take no wine or strong drink
and to eat nothing unclean.

Reading 1 Is 7:10-14

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask!  I will not tempt the LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?

Reading I Gn 49:2, 8-10

Jacob called his sons and said to them:
    “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,
        listen to Israel, your father.

    “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise
        –your hand on the neck of your enemies;
        the sons of your father shall bow down to you.
    Judah, like a lion’s whelp,
        you have grown up on prey, my son.
    He crouches like a lion recumbent,

Reading 1 Is 56:1-3a, 6-8

Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this,
the son of man who holds to it;
Who keeps the sabbath free from profanation,
and his hand from any evildoing.
Let not the foreigner say,
when he would join himself to the LORD,

Reading I Is 54:1-10

    Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear,
        Break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor,
    For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
        than the children of her who has a husband,
        says the Lord.
    Enlarge the space for your tent,
        spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;
        lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.

Readings for the Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church

Reading 1 IS 45:6C-8, 18, 21C-25

I am the LORD, there is no other;
I form the light, and create the darkness,
I make well-being and create woe;
I, the LORD, do all these things.
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.

Readings for the Memorial of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr

Reading 1 ZEP 3:1-2, 9-13

Thus says the LORD:
Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted,
to the tyrannical city!
She hears no voice,
accepts no correction;
In the LORD she has not trusted,
to her God she has not drawn near.

For then I will change and purify
the lips of the peoples,